"Be Careful What You Pray For" - читать интересную книгу автора (Roby Kimberla Lawson)

Chapter 6

Hi, Mom, can you talk?” Alicia said when her mother answered her phone. Tanya was the director at an abused women’s facility not far from New Life Christian Center and sometimes had little time for personal phone calls.

“Actually, I’m eating lunch so this is fine. How are you?”

“Terrible.”

“Why, what’s wrong?”

“It’s Daddy. He just made me so mad, Mom.”

“About what?”

“JT and the fact that he doesn’t like him.”

“Look, sweetheart, I totally understand your frustration, but you also have to realize that your father loves his children more than anything and he’s only trying to look out for your best interest. He’s only acting this way because he doesn’t want to see you get hurt.”

“Well, I don’t care what his reasons are because what I want is for him to stop being so ridiculously overprotective of me, and I want him to accept JT the same as he accepted Phillip.”

“He’ll eventually come around. It may take him a while, but he will.”

“Maybe, but Daddy has a lot of nerve judging JT when he did all sorts of crazy stuff when I was a child. He messed around on you all the time.”

Her mother didn’t say anything, and Alicia knew she’d hurt her feelings. She’d spoken too much too soon and without thinking, and the only thing she could do now was change the conversation.

“So, how’s Dad James?”

“He’s good. Just getting ready for golf season. Actually, he and some of his buddies have already been out to the course a few times.”

“I know how much he loves that.”

“So, how’s the revising process coming along?”

“Very well. I’m almost finished, and I really hope Dad’s agent is happy with the rewrites I’ve incorporated.”

“I’m sure she’ll be fine with them. Do you want me to read it one last time?”

“Will you, Mom? You’ve read it twice already, so I didn’t want to ask you again.”

“Please. What are mothers for?”

“I really appreciate it, and I’ll print out a copy and overnight it to you tomorrow.”

“Sounds good. And you should probably let your father read it again as well.”

“I don’t think so.”

“Alicia,” her mother said, obviously disappointed in her answer.

“I’m sorry, Mom, but I don’t want to talk to Daddy for a while.”

“Do you think distancing yourself from him is a good idea?”

“Actually, I do, and if you want to know the truth, if Daddy can’t accept JT, then I don’t see how he can accept me as his daughter.”

“Alicia, I know you don’t really believe that, do you?”

“Well, if he doesn’t start treating JT like a son-in-law, then I won’t be going around him as much. JT is my husband, I love him, and if Daddy can’t deal with that, then so be it.”

“I really wish you and your father would work out your differences.”

“I’m sure we will at some point but not today.”

“Well, hey, I need to get going. But make sure you mail the manuscript to me, okay?”

“I will, and thanks again, Mom.”

Alicia dialed her best friend, Melanie. Her phone rang four times and then went to voice mail, so Alicia left her a message, asking her to call her back when she got a chance. After that, she signed in to NLCC’s computer system. Since she wouldn’t be able to spend much time at the office the church had given her, at least not until she got her book shipped off, she checked her assigned e-mail account daily from home. She’d only been a member for one month but already she was getting lots of notes from members, welcoming her to the church family. Some talked about how they would eventually make it a point to stand in line to meet her one Sunday after service, and others said they were e-mailing her because they wanted her to know how happy they were to have the Reverend Black’s daughter as their new first lady. Alicia rolled her eyes with irritation. Yes, there had been a time when she loved being recognized or given special treatment because of her father’s notoriety, but not at the moment. Not when she was so perturbed with him. Actually, she didn’t like it much at all anymore because what she wanted was for people to love her for her and not because of how famous one of her parents was.

Alicia skimmed through more e-mails and smiled at all the nice things people had to say, and then she saw one that had “From a Good Friend” as the subject line. So, she opened it:

Hi Alicia,

I have a message for you from a very good friend of yours so please call me at the number below.

She wondered who the note could be from but picked up her home phone and dialed *67, so she could block her number, and then dialed the number on the computer screen. It rang a couple of times, and then a guy picked up.

“Hello?” he said.

“Hi, you sent me an e-mail and asked me to call you?”

“Are you Alicia?”

“It depends.”

“I’m assuming you are because I didn’t send my number to anyone else.”

“Okay, yes, I’m Alicia.”

“How are you? I’m Darrell, a longtime friend of Levi’s, and he wanted me to give you a message.”

Alicia’s stomach quivered, and strangely, her heart did the same. Finally she asked, “Where did you get my e-mail address?”

“Levi heard about you getting married to the pastor of New Life Christian Center and asked me if I could maybe find you online. So, when I went to the church’s website, I saw your photo and an address listed for you.”

“I guess I’m not sure why he wanted you to contact me.”

“Levi is in a federal prison in Indiana, but he really wants to see you. His attorney is in the process of appealing his conviction, and because those detectives went into his home without a proper warrant and basically found nothing, he has a pretty good chance of getting out.”

“Even after all the millions of dollars that were found in offshore accounts? And the testimonies that were given by narcotics officers and a ton of other people Levi had been paying off for years?”

“Yeah, but the good news is that Levi has also cooperated with the authorities in a number of ways, including his providing proof of the person who really owned the drug manufacturing location. And the list basically goes on and on.”

Alicia was stunned by what she was hearing. “I guess I don’t know what to say.”

“I know it sounds far-fetched but none of those testimonies or anything else matters if the police entered Levi’s home improperly and his attorney can get him a new trial and prove he wasn’t the ringleader. If so, Levi could be cleared on a technicality.”

“Still, why does he want to see me?”

“He just does. He talks about you all the time, and I would be happy to take you to visit him.”

“I can’t. I just got married again, and there’s no way I can ever have any contact with him. But please give him my best, and tell him that I wish him well.”

“Will you at least take some time to think about it?”

“I’m sorry.”

“Well, all I could do was try. Levi will definitely be disappointed, but I’ll relay your message to him.”

“I really appreciate it, and again, I’m really sorry.”

“You take care.”

Alicia set the phone down and tried to calm her nerves. She wasn’t sure why she was reliving and remembering all the feelings she’d once had for Levi, but she was and she didn’t like it. Why did he have to try to contact her now? It was bad enough that she hadn’t been able to resist his advances when she was married to Phillip and now here he was causing the same problem again through some friend of his. She hadn’t even heard his actual voice, but just knowing he wanted to see her made her uneasy. Not because she thought he would do harm to her but because she knew, without even hearing him say it, that he still cared about her. She knew he was still in love with her.

But she wasn’t in love with him. Not anymore. She loved her husband, JT. She loved him and no one else, and she was going to pretend she’d never gotten some anonymous e-mail or made a phone call to anyone named Darrell.

She would go on with the rest of her day, business as usual.